Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne.
School of Psychology, University of Queensland.
Top Cogn Sci. 2023 Jul;15(3):388-412. doi: 10.1111/tops.12668. Epub 2023 Jun 19.
Like any organism, humanity constructs its niche and adapts to the rest of nature by modifying available materials around them. In the era that some have dubbed the "Anthropocene," human niche construction has gone so far as to threaten the planetary climate system. The central question of sustainability is how humanity can collectively self-regulate niche construction, that is, humanity's relationship with the rest of nature. In this article, we argue that to resolve the collective self-regulation problem for sustainability, sufficiently accurate and relevant aspects of causal knowledge about the functioning of complex social-ecological systems need to be cognized, communicated, and collectively shared. More specifically, causal knowledge about human-nature interdependence-how humans interact with each other and the rest of nature-is critical for coordinating cognitive agents' thoughts, feelings, and actions for the greater good without falling into the trap of free riding. Here, we will develop a theoretical framework to consider the role of causal knowledge about human-nature interdependence in collective self-regulation for sustainability, review the relevant empirical research primarily focusing on climate change, and take stock of what is currently known and what we need to investigate in the future.
和任何生物体一样，人类通过改变周围可用的材料来构建自己的生态位并适应自然界的其他部分。在一些人称之为“人类世”的时代，人类的生态位构建已经到了威胁行星气候系统的地步。可持续性的核心问题是人类如何能够集体地自我调节生态位构建，也就是说，人类与自然界其他部分的关系。在本文中，我们认为，要解决可持续性的集体自我调节问题，就需要认知、交流和集体共享关于复杂社会生态系统功能的因果知识的足够准确和相关方面。更具体地说，关于人类与自然相互依存关系的因果知识——人类如何相互作用以及与自然的其他部分相互作用——对于协调认知主体的思想、情感和行动以实现更大的利益至关重要，而不会陷入搭便车的陷阱。在这里，我们将开发一个理论框架来考虑关于人类与自然相互依存关系的因果知识在可持续性的集体自我调节中的作用，回顾主要关注气候变化的相关实证研究，并评估当前已知的情况以及我们未来需要调查的情况。
